BookshelfMonstrosity: Magical rivalries are at the heart of these unconventional Fantasy novels, which play out over decades and against elaborate, atmospheric 19th-century backdrops. Their initially relaxed pacing gains momentum as the various narrative threads dramatically converge.… (more)

Magical and engrossing. This book was an absolute delight. The imagery was so incredible that I felt like I was at the night circus. You get see everything and could smell every smell. Absolutely wonderful! There was so much whimsical in this book. I really think it'd make stunning movie visually. Honestly, the reason I wanted to read this book is because I thought the cover was beautiful. Boy was I surprised when the entire book was just as beautiful. I highly recommend this book! ( )

i think the book description don't do it justice. when you read it you would expect a heavy romance,angst novel, but really it's not.The romance story line don't come until the end ,after 50% of book to be exact and i think that what sets the book apart from others.The characters are lovable, the development is suffice i didn't feel the need to know more about anyone than it was stated. My favorite is the twins.The Author style is fabulous. it's very detailed "in good way", Meaning that when she starts describing the performance and the circus. you could almost feel that you in it, and i think that's why i like this story a lot. It transferred me to another world while i was reading it.

why i am giving it 4 stars and not 5?Because frankly i was invested more in the fate of the circus and other characters than i was invested in the relationship between Celia and Marco. ( )

I read this book with a couple of coworkers that wanted to start a book club of sorts and we chose this book as our maiden voyage. Do I regret the journey? No. Do I desire a mulligan? Maybe. I'm a kindle reader and so when I speak in percentages, that's because that's I have to work with.The first 20% of the book flew by; great set up, fantastic characters that I wanted to see develop and grow in their art, a really fantastic framework that the author uses to build the story. I felt like the book stalled in the middle and I had a hard time pushing through it, hoping as things began u raveling that it would pick back up, however I was disappointed. I personally wasn't a huge fan of the way the author chose to end the book, and the last 10% worth or wrapping up details was like a trip to the dentist. If you enjoy the darker side of fantasy, you might enjoy the book, but I can't say it's anything I would suggest to my friends. ( )

I thouroghly enjoyed this book. A wager is made between Hector Bowen and Alexander, known as Mr. A.H. It boils down to nature vs. nurture. From asides in the book, this was not the first wager of this sort between the two men. Hector wagers his daughter Celia, who has inherited his ability to perform real magic, while Alexander counters with Marco, who he picked from an orphanage. The rules were not divulged to the participants, but as time passed they became obvious. The medium for the contest was a circus, which was only open at night. Marco and Celia eventually found out who their opponents were, but this did not matter as they had fallen in love with each other. They both wanted to forfeit, but later found out that the winner of the match was the one that survived, meaning the loser would die. This was unacceptable to the star crossed lovers, and they found a way to have the contest a draw and be together forever.A very enjoyable book that shows that love will always find a way. ( )

Magic without passion is pretty much a trip to Pier One: lots of shrink-wrapped candles. One wishes Morgenstern had spent less time on the special effects and more on the hauntingly unanswerable question that runs, more or less ignored, through these pages: Can children love who were never loved, only used as intellectual machines? What kind of magic reverses that spell? It’s not as pretty a spectacle, but that’s a story that grips the heart.

I am a reader who should have hated this novel; yet I found it enchanting, and affecting, too, in spite of its sentimental ending. Morgenstern's patient, lucid construction of her circus – of its creators and performers and followers – makes for a world of illusion more real than that of many a realist fiction. There is a matter-of-factness about the magicians' magic, a consistency about the parameters of the circus world, that succeeds both in itself and as a comment upon the need for and nature of illusion in general. While the novel's occasional philosophical gestures seem glib ("You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream"), the book enacts its worldview more satisfyingly than could any summary or statement. Rather than forcing its readers to be prisoners in someone else's imagination, Morgenstern's imaginary circus invites readers to join in an exploration of the possible.

Underneath the icy polish of her prose, Morgenstern well understands what makes The Night Circus tick: that Marco and Celia, whether in competition or in love, are part of a wider world they must engage with but also transcend. It’s a world whose mystique and enigma is hard to shake off, and that invites multiple visits.

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.--Oscar Wilde, 1888

Dedication

First words

The circus arrives without warning.

Quotations

Follow your dreams, Bailey, she says. Be they Harvard or something else entirely. No matter what that father of yours says, or how loudly he might say it. He forgets that he was someone's dream once himself.

Children are dragged away with promises that they may return the next evening, though the circus will not be there the next evening and later those children will feel slighted and betrayed.

You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.

I do not like being left in the dark. I am not particularly fond of believing in impossible things.

You're not destined or chosen, I wish I could tell you that you were if that would make it easier, but it's not true. You're in the right place at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that's enough.

I find I think of myself not as a writer so much as someone who provides a gateway, a tangential route for readers to reach the circus. To visit the circus again, if only in their minds, when they are unable to attend it physically. I relay it through printed words on crumpled newsprint, words that they can read again and again, returning to the circus whenever they wish, regardless of time of day or physical location. Transporting them at will. When put that way, it sounds rather like magic, doesn't it?

The truest tales require time and familiarity to become what they are.

Wikipedia in English (1)

A circus known as Le Cirque des Reves features two illusionists, Celia and Marco, who are unknowingly competing in a game to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters, and as the two fall deeply and passionately in love with each other, their masters intervene with dangerous consequences.

Haiku summary

Magicians in loveForced to duel at the circusPut on a great show.(yoyogod)

Where a boy bears lovers' dreamswith a seer of starsand night goes on forever. (blueviolent)

A light and airyFeast for the senses. But wait,Darkness lurks beneath.(passion4reading)

Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2011: Erin Morgenstern’s dark, enchanting debut takes us to the black and white tents of Le Cirque des Reves, a circus that arrives without warning, simply appearing when yesterday it was not there. Young Celia and Marco have been cast into a rivalry at The Night Circus, one arranged long ago by powers they do not fully understand. Over time, their lives become more intricately enmeshed in a dance of love, joy, deceit, heartbreak, and magic. Author Morgenstern knows her world inside and out, and she guides the reader with a confident hand. The setting and tone are never less than mesmerizing. The characters are well-realized and memorable. But it is the Night Circus itself that might be the most memorable of all. --Chris Schluep

Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.